Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Third Season

Rating:
Summary: ST's final frontier
Review: Barely getting renewed for a third season,Star Trek had two disadvantages when it returned.First was executive producer Gene Coon's departure from the series, as well Gene Roddenberry's decreased involvement.The other was a new timeslot on Friday at 10:00 PM, a slot known to bury flagging shows by the networks.
Over the years, many blamed the new producer Fred Frieberg for the lacking quality of the show. Freiberg's only sin was coming aboard a sinking ship which was suffering budget cuts as well as weak stories and it's creator's lack of interest due to the networks total disregard of the show.
Even with the few brilliant episodes (Empath, Paradise Syndrome,Enterprise Incident, Tholian Web, Requium Of Methuselah,All Our Yesterdays), season three is notorious with two of the worst ever in the history of Trek (The Way To Eden, and Spock's Brain).
By the end of season three,ST was finally cancelled after 78 aired episodes in 1969.Even fans couldn't save it, as NBC buried the show.But thanks to syndication, ST became even more popular than when it originally aired and build upon a growing franchise (Conventions, Saturday Morning cartoons,toys, etc,).The ten years after the end of the series,Star Trek The Motion Picture premired.And that was just the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Purchase only if you are a die-hard "Trekkie"!
Review: For starters, what is with all that RED on the cover? This reviewer, along with many others, notes that YELLOW is used for the Season One credits (thus matching with the cover colour of the DVD set) and BLUE is used for both Seasons Two and Three (draw your own inferences).

Aside from the unaccountable designation of RED for the cover colour, many people have expressed dismay at the bulky design of the cover case itself. Upon reflection, this reviewer finds it a not-so-trivial point of complaint.

Contrary to popular myth, Season Three IS NOT as abominable as (almost) everyone makes it out to be. Like all stereotypes, this one indeed does contain a grain of truth - as evidenced by such duds and dregs as "Spock's Brain" (the season opener; a classic case of The First Impression Effect) and "The Way to Eden". But the same bias can also be made against Season One - consider "Mudd's Women" and "What are Little Girls Made of" among others. Generally speaking, the original series tends to be solid from the latter part of Season #1 through the early part of Season #3 and not as solid at both ends thereof. Therefore, on balance, the fact that only some episodes here and there are worthy of viewing un-edited and un-interrupted (by commercials and/or police chases) makes this set rather easy to pass on - at least if the price tag is C$125 or so.

Some noteworthy episodes:
-The Enterprise Incident
-The Day of the Dove
-Wink of an Eye
-Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
-The Savage Curtain
-All Our Yesterdays

Rating:
Summary: Still the BEST TV SHOW EVER!
Review: I started watching Star Trek when I was 10 years old. 1966.
I was also a Lost In Space baby,but Star Trek is still my favorite Tv show of all time. At it's worst, it was great, at it's best, it was as close as Tv ever came to fine litterature.

I had the privelege of meeting the entire cast and Gene himself in my wicked days of youth, and never a ensamble of kind, wonderful people I had ever met before, and never will again.

But I ramble. Two of these great people are now gone, (Dee Kelly and Gene) But this wonderful show they left us will never die.

The ORIGINAL Star Trek was, and still is one of a kind. We will never see it's like again.

Rating:
Summary: Lazy, poorly edited & disappointing extras...
Review: It's already been stated again & again how Season 3 of "Star Trek" is by far the weakest. It would have been nice if the makers of the extras involved in this new DVD release saw fit to trumpet the few merits it had, but overall, the extras are amazingly weak for such a high-priced set... lazily written, with questionable interviews that either are irrelevent, poorly edited or just plain depressing.

First off, when I say depressing, I mean the James Doohan interview, made within the past year. While I'm sure some fans will relish owning what looks like to be his last interview, for others, it'll simply be a sad experience. Mr. Doohan was such a powerful, jolly, energetic personality over the years, but it's a shame to see old age and Alzheimer's take such a dramatic toll on him physically. His mind still seems to be sharp, but his speech and appearance have been SEVERELY affected, and what should have been a fun interview instead turns out to be extremely poignant to watch. Just a little too much of a downer.

While certainly no one can fault Mr. Doohan, the makers of the other extras have a lot to answer for. The "Making of Season 3" featurette is way too brief and not the least bit comprehensive, covering familiar ground that any self-respecting Trekkie will know already. Curiously, interviews with the likes of Shatner and Nichols seem to go on FOREVER, with very little editing to break up the monotony as they ramble (Shatner about having a cold--huh???... and Nichols taking forever to get to the point about "Plato's Stepchildren"), all while intrusive TREK music is blasted in the background, in a very distracting way that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the interview at hand. Oddly, the featurette ends with NO music playing whatsoever over the credits, where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN in the first place.

Disappointingly, all the extras can be watched within the course of an hour or two. George Takei makes his umpteenth pitch for a "Captain Sulu" TV series, while Walter Koenig wastes our time showing us his Big Little Book and pin collections (I'm not kidding... what this has to do with "Star Trek," I don't know). There is a nice little featurette about a prop maker who turned his TREK hobby into a real Hollywood job, while Eugene Roddenberry Jr. is interviewed for what is essentially a fluff piece--his take on what TREK means. Maybe nice to watch once, but hardly intriguing stuff. The "Production Art" option, featuring various TREK sketches by Matt Jeffries, is a neat-enough time-waster, but I was extremely frustrated by the "Red Shirt Logs" Easter Eggs. I assumed, because of the name, that this would be a humorous look back at all the red-shirt security guards that got knocked off during the course of TREK's 3-year run... instead, we're treated to outtakes from earlier interviews of Shatner, Takei, et al. Quite frankly, I was too annoyed to bother sitting through all of them. Finally, the text commentary by the Okudas, while always informative, are only on TWO episodes, and curious choices at that ("The Savage Curtain" and "Turnabout Intruder").

Where are the archive interviews with Gene Roddenberry as to why the third season failed and TREK was ultimately cancelled? Or DeForest Kelley, explaining why "The Empath" was one of his favorite episodes? As another reviewer has already mentioned, why haven't they digitally remastered and cleaned-up the famous "Star Trek" bloopers? Surely there are guest stars from Season Three that could have been interviewed? Isn't Michael Ansara still alive, for pete's sake???

If you don't already own Volumes 29-40 of the earlier STAR TREK DVD releases, then I suppose you're going to have to get this new box set anyway... it's definitely the cheaper way to go. However, if you already own them and are looking to upgrade to this set, do yourself a favor and HOLD ON TO THEM FOR NOW and simply wait until the price comes WAAAAAAY down on this new set and try to buy it used. To be blunt, the extras just aren't worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Season 3 is great but did anyone get the 8th disk?
Review: Not a review per-se, but I've received my 3rd season and it only contains 7 disks, and no 'Red Shirt files.' There is no mention on the jacket about a 'bonus disk' like on the 2nd season. Amazon might need to change their description of this packaging.

Rating:
Summary: The End Of The Begining
Review: The third and final season of the original series only came about after NBC was flooded with "save Star Trek" letters--thanks to a well organized campaign. As a way of rewarding the fans hard work, the network moved the show from an ideal time slot, to a television graveyard--Fridays 10:00 P.M. As a form of protest to the decision, creator Gene Roddenberry stepped away from the series, leaving an enormous creative vacumn. This action indirectly led to further budget cuts--eroding the stadards set by the first two years. While I, like most Trekkers agree that the third year is the weakest, I would add that, given the state of Trek today, in total it's still better than almost anything Enterprise is doing or ever will do.

The season began on a low note, with what is perhaps one of the weakest episodes of any of the series. Spock's Brain has Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his intrepid crew tracking down the Vulcan's (Leonard Nimoy) vital organ after it is stolen. The season may have had more valleys but there were a few standouts...The Enterpise incident is a Mission Impossible like story featuring the Romulans, The Tholian Web has Kirk caught in interdemensional space and a form of space madness infecting the crew, Dr McCoy (DeForrest Kelly) and Chief Engineer Scott (James Doohan) find time for love in For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky and The Lights Of Zetar respectively, Plato's Stepchildren is well known for showing TV's first inneracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the crew gets caught up in the planet Cheron's civil war when Bele (Frank Gorshin) tracks down fugitive Loki (Lou Antonio) to the starship in Let This Be Your Last Battlefield, the Klingons return for Day Of The Dove and future TNG veteran Diana Muldaur returns for her second classic appearance with Is There In Truth No Beauty? Clunkers include And The Children Shall Lead, Wink Of An Eye, The Mark of Gideon, That Which Survives, Requiem for Methuselah, The Way to Eden, The Cloud Minders, and the series final episode Turnabout Intruder bringing things full circle in relation to how the year began.

The DVD set also includes two versions of Star Trek's first pilot "The Cage". The restored version is in full color, while the original version has opening and closing comments from Roddenbery from '86 about the pilot. For completeness it's great to have both, but they would have been better suited for the first season set. Treksperts Michael and Denise Okuda provide text commentaries for The Savage Curtain and Turnabout Intruder. As with the other sets I wish the trivia stayed on screen a bit longer without having to hit pause on the remote all the time. Tracks on more well known episodes would have been nice too. To Boldly Go is a 23 minute season three overview outlining the highs and mostly lows of all the backstage stuff that went on. Life Beyond Trek is a candid interview with actor Walter Koenig (Checkov) about other roles and interests outside the series. The Chief Engineer's Log is very bittersweet, as it is the last interview Doohan gave about the show before he retired...knowing how sick he is now made me think of my own parents...despite frailty he still retained that glint in his eyes that he's always had. A highlight Memoir from Mr. Sulu has actor George Takei discussing his life before the series--another highlight. In Star Trek's Impact, we hear from the show creator's son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr.'s and his unique perspective and memories about the show. The last featurette, A Star Trek Collector's Dream Come True, talks to someone who was inspired by the show to follow a particular career path. Production art from the files of production designer Matt Jefferies, episode previews, a bunch of menu driven Red Shirt Logs peppering the special feateres disc and a third season guide top off the set.

Even though the original series ended on a lower note than it should have, thankfully this great cast continued to shine in a series of feature films based on Star Trek. I will always think of "classic" Trek most fondly, after all, it's the one that started it all.

Rating:
Summary: Big letdown from the second season
Review: The third, and last, season was in general a huge disappointment from the peak it reached in the second season. Some of the worst episodes of the series are found in the embarassing "Spock's Brain" and the unintentionally hilariously bad episode of the space hippies search for a nonexistent galactic Eden. There are far more disasters than Picassos in this season. It was evident that the writers and other creative people were running on fumes and the series clearly had jumped the shark. Stick with the first 2 seasons for consistent entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: ???????????????
Review: This is the season that only started because of Paramount's inundation with letters prompting them to release this season. Gene Roddenberry had departed, but the third season still had its great episodes, along with some weak ones. Trekkies will allow this into their DVD collections, as will I. Trekkies will like it, while newbies bored. Oh, and one more thing. The person who mentioned the red casing being indistinguishable from the yellow/blue colored titles is incorrect. They relate to the colors of the uniforms, and a security guard would be a red shirt. Chekov is a yellow, Spock blue. So there.

Rating:
Summary: Only a small handful of good shows.
Review: Thrid Season of Star Trek was it's last and it was marked by both a feud between Gene Roddenbery and a new producer over the show's budget. Somewhat more cheaper production values, decreaaed visual effects work, and poore writing. The few Exceptions were "The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, That Which Survies, The Lights of Zetar, and the Savage Curtain

Rating:
Summary: I call these The "Under" Years
Review: Underrated. Underdog. Underappreciated.

Somewhere along the way Season Three got a bad wrap. People seem to view the budget cuts as a sort of "barometer of quality". Quite a shame, indeed. Often unmentioned are the characters stepping into the foreground and becoming total and complete. I'll take that over "fancy props" any day. Then again, even with the cuts, who can deny such ingenious and often amazing sets like Mr. AtoZ and his Atavacron?

I suppose I could rail on about how Seinfeld's new boxset has so many extras I should live as long as it would take to watch them and these boxsets tepid excuse for them:) But I won't. I'd much rather converse about Joanne Linvilles absolutely perfect performance as the Romulan Commander or Sharon Smith's show ending and heart stopping (all at once:) perfect finale. It's far more fun and far more productive. Who can forget Spectre of the Gun? The Cloud Minders?? All My Yesterdays???

I will say, the sets are priced too high compared with other shows on the market, then again, Paramount really did a nice job on the packaging. This Season may contain the most shows I dislike the most but it still is an absolute buy, so why split hairs?

Lastly, I must mention Spocks Brain (the episode:). I honestly do not see what the fuss is all about. IMO, the Paradise Syndrome, which is even on the same disc as Spocks Brain is FAR FAR worse in terms of acting and story, and yet SB takes the media fall. It surely isn't my favorite, but the only truly regrettable thing about the show is Spock helping with the operation at the end. The rest of it has some basis for Science "Fiction" where as the Paradise Syndrome is so totally unfathomable... ok, tell me why the Enterprise will take 59 days to get back to Kirk because their Warp Drive is out and they DO NOT INFORM STARFLEET to send another ship...? I'm sorry, but 2 months...? The entire basis of the show is founded on a writer not knowing there are other ships in Starfleet!

All the bells and whistles are here, 5.1DD, clear as crystal picture, and of course the nice sturdy/beautiful plastic case. Please buy this so Paramount will stop making new editions:)

Edit: More Lore; Ok, in All Our Yesterdays people (even Nimoy) seem to have a problem with Mr. Spock eating meat. Why? The story fully explained why, because he was reverting to his primitive past. Also, in The Cloud Minders, Spocks flirtatious relationship can be explaied: A. Droxine points out her race are intellectual peers to Vulcans and B. Spock IS half HUMAN for gosh sakes, that half must peak out from time to time and I see no harm or foul in it presenting itself here.

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